


An Afternoon in Paradise

by IcedAquarius



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gingerpilot, M/M, Ocean, Summer date, cute boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 18:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19340128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcedAquarius/pseuds/IcedAquarius
Summary: It's Poe's turn to choose their date, and Armitage just wants to not get sunburnt.





	An Afternoon in Paradise

Armitage clutched at his bag nervously, as he walked onto the floating dock at the edge of the harbor. The wood was old and creaky in places. He didn’t find the contraption particularly safe. The sun was high in the sky and the water sparkled with its rays, he smelled salt in the air and heard waves crashing against the shore. Swatting at the pesky bugs swarming around his head, he strode towards the end of the dock to a small white and orange boat. 

“Good afternoon Hugsy,” a cheerful voice cried out. Armitage peered up shielding his eyes against the sun, Poe Dameron was on top of his boat tying up some ropes waving down at him. His hair was tousled by the wind, and he wore a pair of swim trunks and a ratty t-shirt. Scrambling down the metal pole, Poe jumped off the ship and landed on the dock. 

“Poe, how many times must I remind you not to call me-” Armitage was cut off with a searing kiss to his lips. In shock, for a moment he didn’t respond, but eventually, he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s broad shoulders. They kissed for a few seconds just enjoying the feel of the other. Poe slowed down and pulled away to look at him. Armitage nearly cringed under his gaze, he knew his partner didn’t care much for personal appearance, but Armitage did; a polo shirt and swim trunk were not his usual attire. 

“How’s my favorite person in the world doing today?” Poe asked with a besotted smile on his face. Armitage blamed any reddening of his cheeks on the sun in the sky.

“I don’t know dear, I don’t make it a habit to talk to Finn every day,” he received a playful shove and a small pout from Poe. 

“Cut it out Armitage, you know I mean you. You ready for a boat ride?” Poe pulled him over to the side of the boat and helped him clamber in. Armitage immediately felt more unsteady standing on the boat than he did on the dock. 

“Oh yes, I am very ready to have my face scorched by the burning sun while I inevitably get seasick. Why did I agree to this torture again?” Armitage asked primly, as he sat on one of the shaded seats on Poe’s boat. He pulled out his bottle of sunscreen, and once again reapplied on his face, he didn’t trust his skin not to completely burn in the couple hours that his boyfriend insisted would be a fun outdoorsy type date. Oh well, it was Armitage’s own fault for falling in love with a man born with adventure in his veins. 

Not that he was really complaining. He loved Poe more than he thought possible with every passing day. 

The other man started messing around with the knobs and levers on the console, finally, the engine started up and they slowly started to move through the water. 

“You agreed because I’ve been begging you for months, and it was my turn to choose the spot for our date. I found this perfect beach on a little island right off the coast. You and I are going to have a relaxing date away from phones or people. Nothing but you, me, a fuck ton of picnic food, the open water, and my beloved boat. Nothing to get in our way,” Poe dropped his voice down and looked at Armitage with a come-hither stare. 

“Yeah, except the boat,” replied Armitage with a dead-pan tone. 

“Now that’s just rude.” 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

“Poe, darling, how exactly are we getting onto the island, when there is nowhere to land?” asked Armitage, fearing the answer his boyfriend is about to give. 

“You and I will swim out, I’ve got the picnic basket strapped to a life preserver, and we’ll just drag it in with us,” Poe gave his boyfriend a quick glance. “Why do you think I asked you to wear your swimsuit?” 

“Oh wonderful, not only will we be sunburnt, but we’ll be wet and salty and sandy too,” Armitage couldn’t help but give Poe a little pout. He knew he was being unreasonable, but swimming could be considered one of Armitage’s least favorite activities, so he felt justified receiving a little sympathy from his partner. 

“Oh, honey I don’t burn I tan; and you are already plenty salty enough, you’ll be fine.” Poe started to slow the boat down, as they finally reached a spot close enough to the little island that they could swim from. “Are you… do you not want to do this?” Poe asked Armitage with an almost quiet voice, lacking its normal enthusiasm and underlying sarcastic tones. “We don’t have to, I can turn the boat around and we’ll go do something somewhere else, or we can just sail around and have lunch on the boat.” Armitage paused for a moment, almost ready to take the offer. 

“No, love this is fine. You have this all planned out, and a little sunshine won’t hurt me. Ignore my complaining, most everyone does.” The ginger rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, but his boyfriend came up to him and cradled his lover’s pale face in his hands. He leaned in to nibble lightly on Armitage’s ear and kissed him down his jaw. The ginger sighed and relaxed a bit, enjoying the administrations of his lover. They stayed like that for just a few minutes, enjoying each other, and the silence around them; nothing but the gentle lapping of waves upon the boat

“I don’t ignore anything you say, Armitage,” whispered Poe. “I know this really isn’t your cup of tea, so if you don’t want to do this, just say so, and we’ll call the whole thing off.” Armitage allowed a small smirk to cross his face, which was better than allowing a completely lovestruck grin to be there instead. 

“Yes, yes, I heard you just fine the first time. I’m perfectly content to go adventuring with you today. Now let’s get this show on the road, I’m ready to be back on solid ground.” Moving away from his lover Armitage reluctantly pulled off his polo shirt and neatly folded it, placing it in his bag which he put in the picnic basket and made doubly sure that it was tightly strapped to the life preserver. Looking over he noticed Poe had also divested himself of his shirt and was finished in securing the boat for while they would be on the island. 

Walking over to the life preserver Poe picked it up and carried it to the edge of the boat then lowered it gently into the water. He sat on the edge of the boat, and allowed himself to tip over, gracefully landing in the water below without disturbing the preserver.

“Come on in doll, the water’s fine!” Waving from down in the water the Latino man attached the preserver to himself so he could drag it through the water while he swam. Armitage watched and hesitated before shoring up all his doubts and followed suit, tumbling over the side of the boat into the water below. 

Cold.

Wet.

Deep. 

Armitage resurfaced slightly sputtering, panicking only ever so slightly about having nothing beneath his feet. Somewhere over to his side, he could hear Poe laughing, and he raised his hand and flipped him off. Pushing his soaking hair to the side, he could see Poe swimming right beside him, with the life preserver bouncing happily on the water. 

“You wanna race?” asked Poe, wiggling his eyebrows with a childlike grin on his face. Armitage rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the smile that came across his face. 

“No thanks, I don’t want our food to tumble into the water,” with that the man began to swim towards shore, his boyfriend just a second behind him. 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It took both men a little less than ten minutes to swim to shore. Poe, being used to extremely strenuous physical exercise, was only a bit winded. Armitage, with his comfy desk job and extreme dislike of anything more heart pumping than a jog on his treadmill, was a bit more… inconvenienced.

“I could have gone in further, I asked if it was okay, you told me you would be okay,” ranted Poe, who was pacing up and down the shore. Every so often he would glance over to his boyfriend who was still laying on the sand, loose-limbed and still slightly dizzy from nearly drowning under the intense waves. 

“I was fine up until the last bloody minute when I got caught in that large wave, and it dragged me back out again. I was stuck and it tired me out, nothing more. Stop stressing love, you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm.” Hux pushed himself off the hot sand, grabbing his polo shirt from the, surprisingly, still intact picnic basket. 

“Fine, but we aren’t leaving until you are completely rested,” Poe still looked guilty, and Armitage rolled his eyes. His lover could get so worked up about the silliest of things. It wasn’t Poe’s fault that the waves had been particularly rough, and Armitage knew that Poe wanted him to get out and enjoy the outdoors with him. That was the whole point of them switching off who picked where they had to go on dates, to do things both of them liked, and introduce the other to those likes. 

Poe grabbed the picnic basket and they headed further inland where they could relax under the trees and enjoy some peace and quiet and a nice lunch. Armitage had to admit the little island was picturesque and it was rather a nice place to enjoy some complete alone time. Their friends (okay mostly Poe’s friends) were great but… loud, and rather insistent on couples nights, and group activities. Plus, with Armitage’s job, his phone would often go off two to three times a date. The ginger prided himself in being nearly invaluable to his company, but there had to be a line drawn at some point when it came to his personal life.

Admittedly before he had started dating Poe eight months ago, Armitage didn’t have a personal life to speak of, but he did now, so priorities had to be rearranged a bit. Sometimes he still couldn’t believe that two completely opposite people could get along well enough to be not just friends, but boyfriends. But here he and Dameron were, still going strong. On occasion Armitage pinched himself, just to make sure that this amazingly attractive, funny, and wonderful man was his in the first place. 

After a few minutes, the couple reached the tree line, and there was a little path hacked out through the bushes. They chatted as they traversed through the dense forest until they came about a clearing that seemed almost too perfect. Armitage’s mouth dropped and he looked to his boyfriend. Poe, for once, had a blush on his face and looked a little sheepish. 

In the clearing was a padded picnic blanket piled high with comfy looking pillows, and an extra blanket off to the side. The ground looked swept clean, with a thin layer of sand covering the area around the picnic blanket, and all over the rocks were candles that had yet to be lit. Positioned on the four sides of the clearing were poles that were strung up with twinkling lights, and hanging between two trees, in front of the blanket setup, was a sheet, and off to the side was a projector and a computer. 

Armitage was stunned speechless. 

“So… do you like it?” asked Poe a bit nervously. 

“Like… it? Poe, I love it, this is… this is amazing,” Armitage didn’t care how his voice went up about an octave. “When… when did you get the chance to do all this?” He watched his boyfriend rub the back of his neck. 

“Early this morning, I brought Finn with me, we went a bit closer to shore than you and I did. The waves were practically nonexistent, which is why I didn’t think swimming it would be that bad. It took a couple of trips, but we got it all set up eventually. The lights are solar powered, so we should see them on within a couple of hours, but we have a battery for the projector. And I also have a cooler with drinks, that was harder to get off the boat than you think, and-” Armitage wrapped his arms around Poe’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss, cutting off his nervous rambling. 

“You might just be the most thoughtful person I’ve ever met, thank you, Poe,” Armitage whispered after he finally released Poe from the kiss. 

“Well, I know this whole outdoors thing really isn’t your deal, and I wanted you to have a bit of comfort so we could enjoy a nice day together.” Armitage felt his heart nearly burst, and then remembered what Poe had offered him earlier on the boat. 

“You told me we could turn around and go home after you did all of this? You’d have gone through all that effort for nothing?” Poe smiled.

“It wouldn’t have been for nothing, today was about surprising you and treating ourselves to a nice day. If that would have been relaxing on the boat, or heading back into the city for lunch, then so be it.” Armitage went in for another kiss before they headed over to the blanket to pull out their meal for the afternoon. After grabbing two drinks the relaxed against the pillows and clinked their glass together. 

Alright, so maybe the outdoors wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, my goodness this was so fluffy! I needed something sweet after the last fic I wrote about these two. I was in a summery mood and with the Gingerpilot summer event, I wanted to get my creative juices flowing. Plus, if a guy did this for me, I would just about fall over, so a little bit of daydreaming going on here. I have a ton of fics planned for this summer, so keep an eye out for new stuff.


End file.
